Living the Full Life (Women)

 Photo credit: healthdailys.com

My grandma lost her memory long before she died. She spent her last days trying to make sense of the world around her. I used to go to her room and hoped she appreciated my company. Most times, I was just going to sit beside her and we would both stare into space. How I enjoyed those times. In my mind, I suppose we enjoyed the sanity in the lack of awkwardness in the silence shared.

In her lucid times, she would share with me our family history or tell me the meaning of a saying that was popular among our ‘people’. I knew her strength was lost in the story that her wrinkled face told.

She passed away this year and her burial is in a few weeks and I really miss her. Forgive my show of emotions, I am going somewhere with this post, stay with me please. You know no matter how much time we spend on earth, it would never feel like we have lived long enough and even when we are in pain, our loved ones would still want us around no matter how selfish there reasons might be.

She spent her last days with those she loved and I can bet nothing could have felt better than that. 

As a Christian, I believe there is the life after but before then one has to live to the fullest while here. Living to the fullest is very objective; the things we prioritise differ from one person to the other. I really do wonder about the life after though, I even had a minor argument on what it meant with a friend and I think I might share with you in my next post.

My grandma’s opinion of a fulfilled life is definitely different from mine. I doubt if she had a list of things she had to do before she died. To me, I would say she lived with what life dropped in her laps; I sometimes think she didn’t have an exciting life (I could be wrong). At the time she lived, the female child was not to be heard; they lived all their lives being the model wife to be, then the wife(not like there is anything wrong with being role models in these aspects but to me, it’s  the way they made it look then like nothing else mattered)

It’s been decades since then and things have changed, we are more aware that all that life has blessed us with is to be enjoyed. Being a wife or mother doesn’t necessarily mean giving up on things that are going to make our lives more fun. Time has a mind of its own, it moves so fast that if one doesn’t move along with it , one will wake up covered in grey hairs and ‘only ifs’. 

Before you find out that your life has stopped even before you die, I’ll love to remind you some things you could/should be doing

• Employ the services of a nanny for a few hours or drop your kids off with your parents and do that Girls’ day out.  
• Plan a family vacation around your favourite spots.
•  Strap your baby(s) in the car seat and take that long drive you enjoy.
• Take your husband out to dinner and relive your sweet moments.
• If you had always wanted a degree, go get it.
• Skydive if you want to, take part in a marathon, start a foundation. etc

Do whatever you want to do, just don’t give up on the things that make you happy blaming it on your kids and husband. In all I have said, don’t forget the importance of balance in all of these. You are a woman built to be flexible. In your happiness lies the happiness of the entire family.

When that time comes when you are going to breathe your last, leave this world with no regrets.